Have you ever been on the fence about making a purchase from a company until you read a positive review or heard from someone else about how the product or service helped them? Social proof is a mighty tool for marketing and communications professionals.

Written testimonials are great and effective but, if you want to really power up the impact, then the next level is using video to share your customer’s positive experiences. Seeing someone else describe their experience can be powerful and offer others peace of mind.

Testimonial videos aren’t just for marketing! They are also a powerful tool for employee communication and workplace recruiting. Imagine your organization is going through a big scary change. Testimonial videos can allow you to use the stories of early adopters and influencers to help ease the challenge of the change.

In this article, we break down the difference between testimonials and transformation stories and some tips on how to create your own.

 

Testimonials VS Transformation Stories

Testimonials and transformation stories are very similar but there is a small difference. 

Testimonials are quotes or statements made by a customer about the experience they had with the organization and how they are willing to recommend them to others. 

Transformation stories have a storytelling aspect where they describe the process of where they were before and how their life changed after. A transformation story should also detail the experience the customer had with your organization.

Both testimonial and transformation story videos can include a call to action from the reviewer. 

• If this is a marketing video, then the call to action might be their recommendation to work with your company. 
• If it’s a corporate recruiting video, then the call to action might be to “apply to work with us today”! 
• For communication of change video, the call to action might be to attend the change round table sessions and share your feedback.

 

How To Record A Testimonial

If you want to get a testimonial from one of your clients you are going to have to ask. 

The best way to receive a testimonial is in a video format. Getting your client to create a written testimonial for you puts too much weight on them to get it done. They’ll end up wanting to spend a lot of time on it to get it perfect. This will often result in them pushing it off until there’s a time they can spend a whole day on it and continue doing so until it is forgotten about.

To avoid this, just ask your client to sit down with you so you can record their verbal testimonial. This process can be done in an interview-style format with you verbally asking your client questions. If you are unable to sit down with them face to face, you have a web call with them and record the call. Be sure to ask them open-ended questions that prompt them to speak about the experience.

 

Of course, you also might also have a client that is uncomfortable being filmed. In this case, you can still use the audio recording from the conversation, have it transcribed and turn it into a written testimonial.

Here is an example of a creative way to use written testimonials if your clients don’t want to be on camera. 

 

 

How To Create A Transformation Story

There are two types of transformation stories that you can tell. You can tell one from your client’s perspective, or you can tell one from your own as the business owner. Both can provide potential customers with trust since you are opening up about yourself and your business. 

In our program Video Fundamentals, we teach a scriptwriting technique that helps you craft a heartfelt and impactful transformation story.

Remember that in transformation stories it’s important that the person talk openly and honestly about their highs and lows and finally, ending with the ultimate high, the transformation that they had by working with you.

Honesty is the best policy. The more honest and truthful you are in your testimonials and transformation stories, the more people will believe you. The whole purpose of testimonials and transformation stories is to gain the trust of your target audience. If you withhold information or stretch the truth, then it sets false expectations for your customers and will end up backfiring on you.

Here is a video that we created for our client Jigsaw Performance to showcase testimonials and stories of transformation experienced by participants of the Jigsaw retreat for female small business owners. 

 

Conclusion

By now, you should have an understanding of how to begin creating your testimonial or transformation story. You can begin a testimonial by asking one of your customers to sit down with you to conduct a one-on-one interview-style video and ask them open-ended questions. 

For a transformation story, establish where you or your customer is now, their all-time low, and why they have changed from their experience with your business.

At Learn to Flourish we are all about creating relevant, engaging, and effective eLearning and videos. If you want to capture your audience’s attention with videos, grab our free scriptwriting training now. 

For more tips on video and eLearning creation, check out our blog for more articles such as How to Create Explainer Videos and How to Create Online Education that People will Love.

Want to explore how Learn to Flourish can support you with your video and eLearning production needs? Book a FREE discovery call now.

 

Wishing you inspiration, innovation, and continuous learning,

Lorena and the Learn to Flourish Team